Some time ago I posted a message about Lombardi's and its pizza dough (and pizza) at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,505.0.html. As noted in that posting, I concluded that the Lombardi's dough recipe was not unlike other pizza dough recipes using high-gluten flour. I never thought to ask the brand of flour used or about the hydration percent of the dough, that is, the weight of water relative to the weight of flour, which would have helped decipher the recipe a bit more. But the dough I handled was not overly sticky, so I would guess that the hydration percent may have been around 60%. I personally think the big differentiator was the very high coal oven temperatures, not the dough recipe itself.

Lombardi's rules. i loved it. but i have a feeling the main thing about their crust that is so good is due to their oven. out of these coal oven places i went to:

- john's of bleeker street- lombardi's- grimaldi's

Lombardi's seemed to have a noticeable "smoky" flavor to the crust. All 3 places had that awesome taste that coal char brings.. but lombardi's especially. i am a crust/dough person big time and that is why lombardi's was my favorite of all the 3 places. I dont know if that sounds weird. but the stuff was amazing.

If you cooked that crust at home i wonder if you'd even think it was any better than any other??

lombardi's recipe is similar to all other ny pizzerias but what gives their pizza it's signature taste is the oven. it's at leasta thousand degrees so it immediately crisps the outside of the crust leaving the inside moist and tender. The biggest misconception about these famous pizza shops is that they spend a lot of time on their dough. They don't. Pizza shops that put out a high volume of pies don't have the time or the resources to blow on arduous dough making. they have recipes similar to lehmann's and they cook at very high temps which leaves the crust with beautiful coloration, managability, and crispness on bottom. the main thing is finding a decent dough recipe and then fine tweaking your baking environment until you reach your goals. I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple unless you are going for a neapolitan style pie.